Historia Synagogue of Čadca
Čadca, a market town in the Kysuce valley of north-western Slovakia, had Jewish residents from the early eighteenth century and became the seat of a rabbinate. By 1864 the community had built a large synagogue on land bought from the local estate, near the site of today's town fountain. It was one of the oldest masonry buildings in the town: a rectangular hall of about 16 by 12 metres with round-arched windows and the Tablets of the Ten Commandments on its front, and a plain exterior that hid an interior with ornamental painting and a surrounding women's gallery. It was renovated around 1920. After the Slovak State deported most of the town's Jews in 1942, the building stood empty; in autumn 1944 the German army used it as a fuel store and garage, and Hungarian units and Vlasov troops stabled horses in it. After the war the few survivors never regained it. From the 1950s it served as a state food warehouse and decayed. On the orders of the town's national committee under the Communists it was demolished from the end of 1972, and a Communist party district headquarters and a savings bank were built on the site by 1975.
Where it stood for 108 years
Historic: centre of Čadca near the Politzer hotel, close to today's town fountain. Present day: site of the former Communist Party district headquarters and Slovenská sporiteľňa, town centre, Čadca, Slovakia. Approximate.
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Jews are first recorded in Čadca at the beginning of the eighteenth century: in 1746 two families named Herschel were registered there. By the end of that century 53 Jews lived in the town, a religious community had formed, and Čadca became the seat of a rabbinate for the surrounding Kysuce region. The community kept growing in the nineteenth century, and by 1828 it numbered 132 people, which made the need for a proper place of worship and a cemetery pressing. The exact date the synagogue was begun is not known, but by 1864 a large new building stood on a plot purchased from the local manor. Jewish families such as the Politzers, who ran a hotel next to the synagogue, were prominent in the town's trade and hospitality. The synagogue remained the religious and cultural centre for the Jews of the whole Kysuce region until the Holocaust.
Architektura i projekt
The synagogue was a rectangular building of about 16 by 12 metres, a typical example of the partly standardised synagogues built in the Kingdom of Hungary in this period. Its exterior was fairly plain, without rich decoration, but had tall round-arched windows and a gable carrying a relief of the Tablets of the Ten Commandments. Inside was a single central hall surrounded on three sides by a women's gallery; the walls were partly decorated with ornamental painting, and the hall was known for its excellent acoustics. Early twentieth-century postcards show the building beside the Politzer hotel, with a round window in the gable, pilasters and a fenced forecourt. The facade was later modernised, and the building was renovated around 1920. Photographs from the Kysucké múzeum archive record the Torah ark wall with its arched niche and steps, the long side walls with arched windows, and the building's final demolition.
Życie w synagodze
As the seat of a rabbinate, Čadca's synagogue served not only the town but the Jewish families scattered through the villages of the Kysuce valley. It was used for regular services, and valuable religious books and ritual objects were kept there. Its central hall with a women's gallery and its good acoustics made it a gathering place for the community's religious and cultural life. Local histories describe the synagogue as having shaped the character of the town centre from the second half of the nineteenth century, standing beside the Politzer hotel on the main square. The names of the rabbis who served here were not found in the sources consulted.
Zniszczenie
After the Slovak State's deportations of March to October 1942 the synagogue stood empty and its community's property was 'aryanised'. In autumn 1944 the German army set up a fuel store and motorcycle garages in it; Hungarian troops briefly stabled horses there, and before Christmas 1944 Vlasov troops fighting on the German side did the same. When the front passed, the building was left empty, damaged and looted. After 1948 it became state property and from the 1950s served as a warehouse for the state food wholesaler, which let it decay. On the basis of a decision of the town's national committee (MsNV) under the Communists in 1972, the building was demolished from the end of that year, beginning with its never-painted tin roof. The Communists then built the district headquarters of the Communist Party of Slovakia and a Slovak savings bank on the site, completed in 1975.
Los społeczności
The Slovak State proclaimed in March 1939 introduced anti-Jewish laws, took Jewish property and businesses and, between March and October 1942, deported most of the Jews of Čadca and the Kysuce region to Nazi death camps, where nearly all were murdered. Their remaining property was confiscated. Only a handful of individuals from the Čadca community returned after the war, too few to use or reclaim the synagogue, and they never recovered their former property.
Miejsce dzisiaj
Nothing of the synagogue survives. Its site in the centre of Čadca, near today's town fountain, is occupied by buildings in the socialist-realist style completed in 1975: the former district headquarters of the Communist Party of Slovakia and a branch of the Slovak savings bank.
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